Resolved: Atheists Are More Cat People Than Dog People

Having co-habited with many cats over the years, I've found them to be free-thinking and inquisitive, like atheists. Dogs seem to be more accepting, more willing to go along. I think this accounts for the fact that atheists tend to favor cats over dogs. (I'm not saying atheists hate dogs--just that we're better attuned to cats.) Comments?

Replies to This Discussion

I have a cat and a dog and appreciate their idiosyncratic strengths. Both are very affectionate intelligent animals, but if I had to choose it would be the dog for the following reason.

If I was shrunk to a smaller size on par with each animal, I would expect my dog to lick me and want to play most of the time. He would still have good memories of me as a larger person. He might get too rough and accidentally hurt me. I would expect my cat at some point to decide to torture me to death very slowly. Have you ever seen that insane look a cat suddenly gets in its eyes before it decides to grab you and kick very hard with its back legs? All those years of affectionate petting and feeding of my cat would be forgotten by my cute little kitty. And she would be purring while deconstructing me.

You (as well as pretty much everyone else here) realize, I hope, that neither species exhibits freethought because they don't actually do much in the way of thinking, free or otherwise. They respond instinctively. (Mind you, so do we. We're capable of critical thought but, mostly, we don't do it.) So, what matters is to what extent our non-human companions enhance our lives.

If you want companion that gives a shit about you, not about what you can provide in the way of service but about *you*, then you want a dog.

Cats, properly raised ones anyway, give just as much affection as dogs do, but there's a difference between "affection" and CO-DEPENDENCE!!!! Dogs don't "care" more than cats, they're both running on instincts, and it just so happens that humans have bred dogs to be co-dependent, this is not been the way cats have gone. I've had both, they can give equal affection.

But I dislike co-dependent dogs just as much as co-dependent people. If you're looking for total obedience and adulation... might as well get a slobbery robot!!!! LOL

Cats have a brain the size of half a walnut. For that reason alone they are much more of a challenge to connect with.

Dogs, are obviously much more intelligent, but that intelligence has too many drawbacks . Mostly because it makes them much more needy and demanding. I just can’t live with that. Or, I should say, I choose to give attention to the needs and demands that my human contacts have.

That being said, it makes my heart soar when my cat appears to return affection.

Sometimes I get the same feeling I get when I look up into the night sky and ponder the cosmos, that I get when I consider my personal connection with an entirely different species, sitting here on my lap.

I usually take a Darwinian position on this stuff. Let’s look at the question from a naturalistic perspective.

Ever notice that many of history’s rebels and introspective leaders were cat lovers? Lenin, Napoleon, even Che Guevara. That’s because felines are usually solo hunters, stealthy and sneaky. Canines on the other hand are pack hunters. So they have to know how to get along in the social group, learn the pecking order and follow commands.

So whether you’re a dog or cat person says a lot about your personality. My old Dalmatian, Maximillion Spots, would practically start crying when we had to leave him alone in the big house. But a cat, when you leave it alone couldn’t give a damn.

In sum, if you’re a “people person” you tend to be a dog person. But if you an independent, introspective type, you tend to be cat person. Fun question.